The importance of dog sniffers

Franky the drug dog's nose is at the heart of a question being put to the U.S. Supreme Court: Does a police K-9's sniff outside a house give officers the right to get a search warrant for illegal drugs, or is the sniff an unconstitutional search? (Jan. 4)

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A dog’s sense of smell is an incredible gift – not only to the dog, but to their human companions as well. Dogs are known to hold jobs that require them to sniff drugs, bombs, diseases, pregnancies and now cell phones!

Melissa L. Stoneburner

Dogs overlook the importance of their own nose. They only know that they use the apparatus do interpret their world. The fact is that dogs interpret as much information as human beings do. They utilize their sense of smell while people rely more on their sense of sight.

This dog sense, paired with a human’s ability to rationalize is very powerful. In fact, a dog’s sense of smell saves lives.

Although the latest use of the dog nose is not to prevent death, it will help human counterparts do their jobs better. Somehow prisoners have been able to smuggle in cell phones and are using them. This is proving quite a challenge to prison officials; one of the biggest challenges in fact.

Currently, two separate Indiana prisons have trained dogs to detect cell phones in prison cells. When discovered, the phones are confiscated thus crime is again denied its hold on society.

Prisoners are using the phones in order to run criminal activities taking place outside the prison walls. They have also used them to plan escapes, plan acts of violence both inside and outside the prison, and traffic contraband, drugs and guns, etc. Having this ability to minimize these criminal activities will hopefully keep crime to a minimum.

In 2012 alone, over 2,500 cell phones were confiscated in the 20 adult correctional facilities just in the State of Indiana. When we consider the other 40 states, that amount is staggering! Thanks to dogs, perhaps another bite will be taken out of crime – or should we say sniffed out of crime?

Dogs were simply born to sniff. Their scent-detecting cells are about 59 times greater than that of a human’s. In addition, a dog’s brain has been programed specifically to identify scents. Upon analyzing a dog’s brain, it was discovered that the percentage of the brain devoted to analyzing smells is 40 times larger than a human’s. It is estimated that a dog’s ability to smell ranges from 1,000 to 10,000 times better than their human counterpart.

Dogs are incredible creatures; more so than many give them credit for. Without dogs, our world would not be as advanced as it is today.

Canines are a special gift that have been given a special gift. If human beings are wise, they will use a dog’s ability to smell to their advantage. Every day we find more and more ways that dogs can help us succeed!

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Melissa Stoneburner is the proud parent of a Soft-Coated Wheaten Terrier named Quantum Leap, nicknamed Q. Melissa's husband, Kent and their two sons, Reese and Drew live in Illinois. Melissa's an author who initially self-published her first devotional, Love's True Reveal, in 2006. Her first novel, A Little Hope, will be available soon. Melissa helps elementary children publish books and devotes time to children with special needs at St. Michael Church. Email her at MelissaStoneburner@gmail.com.